


Seven Card Stud

by dyingpoet



Category: The Outsiders - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Gambling, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Tenderness, idk man theyre def gay they just need to be sleepy to be soft about it yknow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 04:00:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21009374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dyingpoet/pseuds/dyingpoet
Summary: Dallas teaches Johnny how to play poker





	Seven Card Stud

**Author's Note:**

> cool so idk how the fuck i managed to do this instead of my midterm but here we are :')

“Alright, sit down, kid.”

Dallas threw his keys onto his bed and started digging through the drawer in the crap table Buck shoved in the corner of the room. It had to be here somewhere- ah.

He turned back to see Johnny sitting on the bed, frowning at Dallas and blowing the hair out of his eyes. “You really don’t gotta teach me Dal, I’m fine watching y’all play.”

Rolling his eyes, Dallas sat down on the bed, smirking when it bounced and Johnny nearly fell off. “Yeah, but if you learn how to play  _ good _ , we can hustle Soda and Steve.”

Johnny didn’t have anything to say to that, and moved to sit cross-legged in front of Dallas, who picked open the deck of cards and started shuffling them. “Don’t ya wanna teach me how to do that?”

Dallas shook his head. “Nah, if you can’t shuffle people’ll think you’re shit, make more money off ‘em that way.”

“Tuff.”

“Damn right it is,” Dallas said, putting the deck down on the bed for Johnny to cut. “I haven’t had a person to hustle with since Tim swore off gamblin’. Don’t know why he did that, he was real good.”

Johnny cut the deck and said, “Didn’t their old man get shot at some poker game downtown?”

“I dunno, maybe. Shouldn’t stop a perfectly good poker player from makin’ some money though.”

Deck shuffled, Dallas looked up. “Okay, seven card stud. Real easy game, you’ll catch on quick.”

Johnny nodded intently while Dallas dealt and explained the rules.

“Okay, so first you get two cards down, and one face up. Then you bet.”

They both pulled out their packs of smokes and Dallas looked at his cards. They were shit but it didn’t really matter.

Johnny gave just a hint of a smile at his own cards and Dallas snapped his fingers in front of his face. “Hey, poker face, man. You’re givin’ it away.”

“You don’t know what I got,” Johnny said, already more confident than he’d been when the two of them had gone out earlier. 

“Yeah, but I know it’s good, which is the same as knowin’ what you got.”

Johnny just barely rolled his eyes, grinning a little when Dallas shoved his shoulder. “Alright man, lay off. Now what?”

“ _ Now _ ,” Dallas drawled, tossing his own cards down and leaning back on his hands. “Now nothin’, I know you probably got a pair, and I ain’t bettin’.”

From the look on Johnny’s face Dallas figured he guessed right, and he shrugged and went to light one of his smokes when Johnny threw his own cards down. “That’s poker, man. Gotta learn somehow.”

“Fine, deal again.”

Dallas grinned around his cigarette before gathering their cards and shuffling the deck again. “Okay smartass, don’t give nothin’ away this time.”

He dealt the cards again and Johnny lit up his own smoke. “Ain’t these supposed to be what we’re bettin’?”

“Yup,” Dallas said on the exhale, picking up his cards again and nodding approving when Johnny schooled his features when looking at his own. “Good, now you bet.”

Johnny threw down one smoke and Dallas did the same. “So I called, now ya get another face up, and no smilin’ and shit.”

“I heard ya before.”

“Really? Couldn’t tell from the way you’re lookin’ at that straight.”

Johnny didn’t say anything, but Dallas saw him holding back a smile and rolled his eyes. “You play like a fuckin’ girl, man.”

Johnny ignored him and tossed another smoke into the pot.

“I call,” Dallas said, tossing in his own and dealing another face up. “Now if you’re actually goin’ for the straight, you don’t wanna raise. If we had more people, you’d just keep callin’ their bets, won’t scare ‘em off that way.”

“How can you tell I’m goin’ for a straight?” Johnny asked, looking between his and Dallas’ cards.

“Because you got a six and five up top,” Dallas said, leaning back to ash his cigarette on the dish by his bed, grabbing it and putting it next to them so Johnny could do the same. “Whenever you see cards in order like that, figure they’re goin’ for the straight. Worse case, they ain’t and they got shit and fold.”

Johnny hummed and they finished out the game in relative silence, Dallas giving Johnny a few pointers throughout. Johnny had gotten the straight, and Dallas started re-shuffling while Johnny pulled the smokes over to his side of the bed.

“So Tim used to be a good player?” 

Dallas nodded. “Damn good, used to be able to catch onto people’s tells real quick. Me and him used to hustle bars downtown. We’d both throw a couple hands at first then run the game for a few hours.”

“Ever got caught?” Johnny asked, picking up his two cards when Dallas dealt them out and ashing his cigarette.

“Oh yeah,” Dallas said, laughing a little when he looked at his own cards. “A bunch of real tuff guys caught onto us and almost busted our heads in. A guy almost broke my fuckin’ jaw. We got out with the money though.”

“That’s tuff.”

“Damn right it is,” Dallas said with a grin. “I ain’t gonna bring you around that scene if ya ever get good enough though. Tim’s got a helluva lot of muscle on you.”

Johnny jutted out his chin and threw two smokes into the pot. “I’m good enough in a fight.”

“I call,” Dallas said, blowing his smoke in Johnny’s face and tossing the but into the tray when the younger cursed. “And I ain’t sayin’ nothin’ like that, the guys downtown aren’t fuckin’ around though. They’d put ya in the hospital if they got you down.”

Johnny shrugged. “Yeah I guess. I ain’t ever been downtown.”

“I’ll take ya sometime,” Dallas offered. “It’s pretty shitty but at least it ain’t here, y’know?”

“Yeah,” Johnny said, half-listening as he looked at his cards again, keeping his face neutral. “How many games I gotta learn anyway?”

“Three or four more more.”

Johnny groaned and Dallas reached over to cuff him lightly around the head. “Shut it, this is a top quality education you’re gettin’, free of charge.”

“Yeah, yeah, just bet.”

Dallas grinned and the game went on. After a few more hands they switched over to five card draw, and Texas Hold ‘Em after that. It was probably around two in the morning when they finally called it. They’d gotten back from the movie pretty late, and Johnny was starting to fall asleep over his cards by the end. 

Gathering up the cards and tossing the pack on the table, Dallas picked up his smokes and took Johnny’s to put on the table and slipped off shirt and tossed it on the ground. He probably needed to wash his undershirt too, the thing was getting rank. 

Johnny stood up and stretched his arms out when Dallas sat back down. “I better get goin’, thanks for teachin’ me and everything, Dal.”

He yelped when Dallas grabbed his arm and jerked him back with enough force to get him to fall back on the bed. 

“The hell do you think you’re goin’?”

Johnny’s eyes widened and he cleared his throat. “The lot I guess? It ain’t that cold, and I don’t wanna bother Darry or nothin’ when it’s so late.”

Dallas let go of his arm just to shove at his chest, the younger falling flat on his back against the bed. “It’s almost two in the morning, you’ll get jumped or some shit and I ain’t walkin’ ya back. You can sleep here.”

Johnny stuttered for a few seconds and started to shake his head, sitting up. “Nah man it’s cool, nobody’s really out in our neighborhood anyway, it’s not that long of a walk. I can go.”

Dallas tugged him back down and slapped him lightly on the side of the head. “It’s forty fuckin’ degrees man, and I ain’t above holdin’ ya down.”

Johnny stared at him, and Dallas stared back.

“And that wouldn’t be too hard, either. You’re skin and bones, man-”

“Alright,” Johnny bit out, mock glaring at Dallas when he smirked. “Thanks.”

“Don’t sweat it.”

Johnny kicked off his shoes and took off his jacket, laying down stiffly and rubbing at his arms until Dallas tossed him the extra blanket he kept tucked under the bed. “Here.”

“Thanks,” Johnny said, yawning and curling underneath it while Dallas crawled under his own. “I’ll probably beat it pretty early tomorrow, don’t wanna hang around too long.”

Dallas stared up at the wall and shook his head. “Nah, I can buy ya breakfast or something.”

“You don’t gotta-”

“Skin and bones,” Dallas reminded him, looking over to see Johnny roll his eyes. “I gotta be up anyway, I’m supposed to jockey ‘round noon.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Dallas said, shifting to put his arm under his head. “Slash J. Buck said he had some pretty decent money on it, and I ain’t been giving him much in the way of rent lately, so I gotta.”

Johnny hummed and Dallas kept going.

“You should get on a horse sometime, man, it’s tuff. Jockeying and racing and good money if you’re any good at it, too. And with you being pretty small, you could probably jockey if you wanted to.”

When Johnny didn’t say anything, Dallas looked over and saw him already asleep, curled up on his side facing Dallas. Reaching over, Dallas brushed the bangs out of his eyes and pulled the blanket up a little more around him. 

“Fuckin’ idiot would’ve froze to death in the lot.”

Turing onto his side, he closed his eyes and listening to the kid breath for a few minutes before knocking out himself. He didn’t dream. Dallas never dreamed, it was just black.

* * *

Dallas woke up to the light coming in through the window, and he groaned, rubbing at his eyes and sitting up to crack his back. There was a sound behind him, and he looked to see Johnny stirring, cracking open his eyes and nodding at Dallas.

“Morning Dallas.”

“Morning sleepin’ beauty,” Dallas quipped, shoving at the kid’s head a little and standing up. “Get up, we’ll head over to the DX and get some food or somethin’.”

Johnny nodded sleepily, eyes red as he yawned and stumbled to a stand so he could put on his shoes and slip on his jacket. Dallas grabbed his own, running a hand through his hair as Johnny started messing with his own. 

“It looks fine, let’s go,” Dallas said half through a yawn, throwing an arm around Johnny’s shoulders as they left the room and walked down the stairs through the bar. “Quit lookin’ around, ain’t nothin’ to see.”

* * *

Soda and Steve were hanging around behind the counter when Dallas and Johnny showed up, Soda grinning and Steve ruffling Johnny’s hair when they both leaned up against the counter.

“What’s up kid? Y’all wake up in a hurricane?” Steve joked, dodging Dallas’ weak punch and laughing.

“Y’all got any food to spare?” Dallas asked Soda. “Part of your delinquent outreach program?”

Soda laughed a little at that and nodded. “Always got extra for those poor, poor hoods. Grab a sandwich and coke or somethin’.”

Dallas and Johnny both grabbed themselves something, Dallas sitting up on the counter to eat even after Steve griped at him. Johnny leaned up against the counter and started talking to Soda about school.

“So,” Dallas said, swallowing the last bite of his sandwich and chasing it with a sip of coke. “You two up for some poker tonight?”

He looked at Johnny, who bit his sandwich to hide his smile.

Steve whistled low and propped an arm on Soda’s shoulder. “I guess, we could both use the money.”

The two of them bust out laughing and Dallas jumped off the counter, slinging an arm around Johnny’s shoulder. “Yeah, yeah smartass. We’ll see who’s laughin’ later tonight.”

Steve started to curse at him goodhearted when a car pulled up, and they both started for the door with Dallas and Johnny.

“Thanks for the food, guys,” Johnny said quietly, throwing his bag and coke bottle in the trash, Dallas following suit.

“No problem, Johnnycakes,” Soda said, messing with his hair again. “Meet at our place ‘round six, alright? Y’all can eat before we play, I’ll let Darry know to make some extra food.”

Johnny was about to protest when Dallas beat him to it. “Thanks, Soda.”

“Don’t mention it, see y’all later.”

The two of them walked off and Dallas tugged Johnny toward the road. “We’re gonna beat their asses, right John?”

“Hell yeah.”

“Good,” Dallas said, dropping his arm and turning back toward Buck’s. “I gotta go, I’ll catch ya later.”

“See ya, good luck jockeying.”

“Thanks, kid.”

* * *

Dallas showed up at the Curtis place a little after seven. He didn’t like eating with them all that much, after their folks died it didn’t feel right anymore. Besides, he was dead tired after racing and he took a shower and passed out as soon as he got back to his room. 

The door slammed behind him as he walked in, and he shoved at Ponyboy’s head when he glared at him from the couch. “What’s up, Pony?”

“Not much,” Ponyboy said, eyes glued to the T.V. “They’re waitin’ on you to start the game in the kitchen.”

Dallas walked in and nodded at Soda and Steve, punching Johnny on the shoulder as he sat down next to him. “Let’s get this thing goin’.”

“‘Bout time,” Steve said, tossing the deck over to Johnny. “You shuffle, kid.”

Johnny slid the deck back. “Don’t know how.”

Steve and Soda chuckled and Dallas kicked Johnny’s leg under the table, and the kid smiled a little in spite of himself. This was going to be a damn good game.

After the first couple hands Johnny started getting back into it, winning a round against Steve and Soda while Dallas fell back into his own groove and took a few others. It was worth staying up all night and dragging himself here just to see the look on Steve and Soda’s faces by the time Darry hollered at them to end the game.

“Guess they talk a pretty big game, huh, Johnny?” Dallas said with a smirk, gathering up his three bucks, Johnny getting two-fifty himself. 

“Seems like it, Dal,” Johnny said lightly, even letting out a laugh when Soda shoved at his shoulder.

Steve looked between the two of them with narrowed eyes before sitting back in his chair with his arms crossed. “Y’all hustled us.”

Dallas shrugged and pulled out a smoke, striking the match on the chain around his neck and lighting up. “Nah, seems like you guys just suck at cards.”

He took a drag and passed Johnny the smoke, looking at Steve with a mock-challenging glare. “Huh?”

Soda stood up and slapped a hand on Steve’s shoulder, ever optimistic. “They beat us fair and square, Stevie, let it go.”

“Whatever you say, Soda,” Steve said, yawning and getting up himself, sending Dallas and Johnny one more look before walking into the living room and flopping down on the recliner. 

“Good game, Johnny,” Soda said, patting the younger on the shoulder and nodding approvingly at Dallas. “Y’all can crash here if you don’t wanna walk back home. Someone’s gotta sleep on the floor or you can split the couch.”

“Great, thanks for the cash, buddy!” Dallas called after him as Soda walked back to his room, flipping them off over his shoulder as he did. 

When he shut the door behind him, Dallas ruffled Johnny’s hair, beaming. “That was some tuff playing, kid.”

He was keeping his voice low so Steve wouldn’t hear, but throwing an arm over Johnny’s as they walked into the living room. 

“Thanks.”

Giving him one last rub to the head, Dallas sat down on the couch, stretching out his arms when Johnny did the same, bringing his knees up to his chest and yawning. “I can sleep on the floor.”

“Nah, we can both fit fine, the floor’s hard.”

Steve snorted from the recliner and Dallas cursed him out for a minute before grabbed Johnny a blanket. “Here.”

Johnny took it and curled up on his side, letting Dallas splay out with most of his legs hanging off the side. It wasn’t comfortable but it was better than the floor. “G’night, good playing, kid.”

“Cheaters,” Steve mumbled, and Dallas threw a pillow at him from across the room. 

“Thanks Dal, g’night Steve,” he called softly, and Dallas smirked when Steve sighed and said a tired goodnight back.

Both of the other boys were out within minutes of each other, and Dallas stared up at the ceiling, wanting a smoke but not feeling like grabbing one from his jacket he’d left in the kitchen. He let himself watching Johnny’s chest rise and fall for a few more minutes, finally drawing his legs off the floor and putting them as slowly as he could on Johnny’s shoulder. A little after he let himself close his eyes and even out his breathing. He didn’t dream again, but he went to sleep thinking he’d kill the guy who fucked with that kid. And he meant it, too. 

**Author's Note:**

> i have zero sense of this rn but i hope u liked it!!!
> 
> kudos/comments are always appreciated and u can follow me on tumblr @dying-poet to send prompts or like,, talk or some shit idk?? love yall!!


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